A
Place of Pilgrimage -
Pennant Melangell
by Linda-Mary Edwards
On
St Melangell’s Feast day this year, we held a workshop entitled, “Exploring
your creativity through paint and clay”
Two Sculptors came to facilitate and ten people worked - or rather
played - with silk paints, water colours and clay.
At 3 o’clock we had our usual afternoon service in the Church and what
follows is an extract from the sermon that day.
The
prophet Isaiah (Isaiah
61:1-11) tells us that
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”.
He feels spirited, high in energy and determined in purpose because God
has given him His Spirit. The spirit of a person is what makes that person who
they are, so when God gives someone His Spirit, they become more like God in
their nature and character and in their actions. Isaiah goes on to describe the job God has given him,
“To bring good news to the oppressed”.
But what does that mean?
In order to bring good news to anyone, you have to seek them out first -
find them or meet them and have some kind of meaningful contact with them.
So part of Isaiah’s mission would have been to find the people who are
bowed down and crushed by their circumstances, whatever form their oppression
takes. And that is why the St
Melangell Centre, which is part of the ministry at Pennant Melangell, advertises
free counselling for people with emotional or psychological difficulties, we
welcome those who feel oppressed by depression, anxiety or phobias, loss and
bereavement, and seek to be alongside them as they struggle to be free.
We
see from Scripture that God’s nature is to free people.
In the book of Exodus, we see God showing
concern for his people in slavery in Egypt:
‘The
Lord said: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
I have heard their crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am
concerned about their suffering, so I have come to rescue them.”
This
is good news for the oppressed, and God follows through His promise in the
Exodus of the people from their oppressors through the parted Red Sea. God is a
freeing and liberating God, as the prophet makes clear “He sent me to proclaim
liberty to captives and release to prisoners.”
An
elderly and holy priest said to me recently, “Pennant Melangell is a very
liberating place.” And I think he is right.
It was originally a place where a young woman oppressed by the prospect
of an arranged marriage, found liberation, freedom to be herself, to be who she
was, under God. And this special, holy place still offers that freedom to all
who come burdened by oppressive factors or experiences in their lives.
Another
part of the prophet’s mission is to proclaim the Lord’s favour and to
comfort those who mourn. In St Melangell’s Church the Lord’s favour is so
obvious and almost tangible. Many visitors comment on the palpable sense of the
presence of
God. A bishop who
celebrated the Eucharist here a few weeks ago, spoke of it as a remarkable place
with a solid silence. In talking about it, we agreed it was not an empty or
threatening silence but a full and benign silence - indicating the presence and
the power and the favour of God.
It
is also a place where those who mourn find comfort, perhaps because they feel
enveloped in the marvellous blanket of God’s presence and love.
People experience here something bigger than themselves and their sorrows
and find themselves being upheld in difficult times.
I
like the phrase, “provide for those who mourn”, we cannot magically remove
people’s pain and grief, either at the Church or at the Centre, but we can
provide a space, and a welcome for those who need to mourn their losses.
A space and a time for people to “just be” and to grieve and work
through their thoughts and feelings.
St
Melangell’s Church is set in beautiful countryside with a charming legend
telling us about the protection of a small creature, the hare.
It can sound rather twee, as if it’s all about niceness and sweetness
and having tea and cakes in the garden and people can perhaps misunderstand what
Pennant Melangell is all about.
Pennant Melangell is a lovely peaceful place but it is also a power house
of God’s Spirit to drive us out as spirited people, to effect change in our
unjust world. And if it is
not that, then it is a bogus spirituality, which is nothing to do with the
Gospel. That is why we need a
community of people around St Melangell’s Church who can be true to what the
Church stands for, working to bring liberty to captives, getting alongside
people who are poor or oppressed in whatever form that takes, and having
meaningful contact with them. We
need to demonstrate the good news of God’s love and concern for them by
actions not just by what we say.
God
does draw people here for a variety of reasons — some don’t even know why
they’ve come, but they get here and they find something they need.
Some come to see the ancient yew trees, or out of historical or
archaeological interest, some are interested in Celtic Christianity or the
wildlife, but for whatever reason they have come, God awaits them here.
Those
of us who live and work here feel anointed by God’s Spirit to convey, by our
attitudes and actions, the love and concern of God for all who come.
That’s an exciting mission and we are delighted when others catch the
vision and join us in attempting to fulfil it.
(Pennant
Melangell is in St. Asaph Diocese, and the nearest village is
Llangynog in the Llanfyllin deanery
.
This
article is reproduced from the Pennant Melangell magazine Inspire.
Rev’d
Linda-Mary Edwards is the Guardian Priest.
Offices are said three times daily.
On Thursdays there is a Holy Communion at 12 noon with the laying on of
hands. (Contact Tel. 01691
860408 )